Category Archives: LEDs

Recently, quantum dots (QDs)–nano-sized semiconductor particles that produce bright, sharp, color light–have moved from the research lab into commercial products like high-end TVs, e-readers, laptops, and even some LED lighting. However, QDs are expensive to make so there’s a push to improve their performance and efficiency, while lowering their fabrication costs.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have produced some promising results toward that goal, developing a new method to extract more efficient and polarized light from quantum dots (QDs) over a large-scale area. Their method, which combines QD and photonic crystal technology, could lead to brighter and more efficient mobile phone, tablet, and computer displays, as well as enhanced LED lighting.

To demonstrate their new technology, researchers fabricated a novel 1mm device (aka Robot Man) made of yellow photonic-crystal-enhanced QDs. Every region of the device has thousands of quantum dots, each measuring about six nanometers. Credit: Gloria See, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

To demonstrate their new technology, researchers fabricated a novel 1mm device (aka Robot Man) made of yellow photonic-crystal-enhanced QDs. Every region of the device has thousands of quantum dots, each measuring about six nanometers. Credit: Gloria See, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

With funding from the Dow Chemical Company, the research team, led by Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) Professor Brian Cunningham, Chemistry Professor Ralph Nuzzo, and Mechanical Science & Engineering Professor Andrew Alleyne, embedded QDs in novel polymer materials that retain strong quantum efficiency. They then used electrohydrodynamic jet (e-jet) printing technology to precisely print the QD-embedded polymers onto photonic crystal structures. This precision eliminates wasted QDs, which are expensive to make.

These photonic crystals limit the direction that the QD-generated light is emitted, meaning they produce polarized light, which is more intense than normal QD light output.

According to Gloria See, an ECE graduate student and lead author of the research reported this week in Applied Physics Letters, their replica molded photonic crystals could someday lead to brighter, less expensive, and more efficient displays. “Since screens consume large amounts of energy in devices like laptops, phones, and tablets, our approach could have a huge impact on energy consumption and battery life,” she noted.

“If you start with polarized light, then you double your optical efficiency,” See explained. “If you put the photonic-crystal-enhanced quantum dot into a device like a phone or computer, then the battery will last much longer because the display would only draw half as much power as conventional displays.”

To demonstrate the technology, See fabricated a novel 1mm device (aka Robot Man) made of yellow photonic-crystal-enhanced QDs. The device is made of thousands of quantum dots, each measuring about six nanometers.

“We made a tiny device, but the process can easily be scaled up to large flexible plastic sheets,” See said. “We make one expensive ‘master’ molding template that must be designed very precisely, but we can use the template to produce thousands of replicas very quickly and cheaply.”

IC Insights will release its August Update to the 2015 McClean Report later this month.  The August Update will include an in-depth analysis of the IC foundry market and a look at the top 25 1H15 semiconductor suppliers’ sales results and their outlooks for 3Q15 (the top 20 1H15 semiconductor suppliers are covered in this research bulletin).

The top-20 worldwide semiconductor (IC and O S D—optoelectronic, sensor, and discrete) sales ranking for 1H15 is depicted in Figure 1.  As shown, it took just over $2.2 billion in sales just to make it into the 1H15 top-20 ranking and eight of the top 20 companies had 1H15 sales of at least $5.0 billion. The ranking includes seven suppliers headquartered in the U.S., four in Japan, three in Taiwan, three in Europe, two in South Korea, and one in Singapore.  The top-20 supplier list includes three pure-play foundries (TSMC, GlobalFoundries, and UMC) and four fabless companies.

IC Insights includes foundries in the top 20 semiconductor supplier ranking since it has always viewed the ranking as a top supplier list, not a marketshare ranking, and realizes that in some cases the semiconductor sales are double counted.

It should be noted that not all foundry sales should be excluded when attempting to create marketshare data. For example, although Samsung had a large amount of foundry sales in 1H15, some of its foundry sales were to Apple and other electronic system suppliers.  Since the electronic system suppliers do not resell these devices, counting these foundry sales as Samsung IC sales does not introduce double counting.  Overall, the top-20 list in Figure 1 is provided as a guideline to identify which companies are the leading semiconductor suppliers, whether they are IDMs, fabless companies, or foundries.

semi sales 2q15 fig 1

In total, the top 20 semiconductor companies’ sales increased by only 1% in 2Q15/1Q15, the same growth rate as the total worldwide semiconductor industry.  Although the top-20 semiconductor companies registered a 1% sequential increase in 2Q15, there was a 23-point spread between Samsung, the fastest growing company on the list (10 percent growth), and Qualcomm, the worst performing supplier (13 percent decline) in the ranking.  Moreover, given Qualcomm’s currently dismal guidance for 3Q15, the company is on pace to post a semiconductor sales decline of 20 percent in calendar year 2015.

Samsung’s excellent growth rate in 2Q15 put the company closer to catching Intel and becoming the world’s leading semiconductor supplier.  In 2014, Intel’s semiconductor sales were 36 percent greater than Samsung’s.  In 2Q15, the delta dropped by a whopping 20 percentage points to only 16 percent.  However, with Intel providing guidance for a 3Q15/2Q15 sales increase of 8 percent and Samsung facing a lackluster DRAM market (primarily due to pricing pressures), additional gains toward the number one position may be difficult for Samsung to achieve in the near future.

There were two new entrants into the top 20 ranking in 1H15—Japan-based Sharp and Taiwan-based pure-play foundry UMC, which replaced U.S.-based Nvidia and AMD.  AMD had a particularly rough 2Q15 and saw its sales drop 35 percent year-over-year.  In fact, in 2Q15, the company’s sales fell below $1.0 billion for the first time since 3Q03, almost 12 years ago.  It currently appears that AMD’s 2013 restructuring and new strategy programs to focus on non-PC end-use segments have yet to pay off (in addition to its sales decline, AMD lost $361 million in 1H15 after losing $403 million in 2014).

IC Insights has recently lowered its 2015 worldwide semiconductor market forecast from 5 percent to 2 percent.  As was shown in Figure 1, the top 20 semiconductor suppliers in total had $128.3 billion in sales in 1H15.  This figure was just under 50 percent of the top 20 companies’ full year 2014 sales of $259.1 billion.  With only modest growth expected in the second half of this year for the worldwide semiconductor market, the top 20 semiconductor suppliers’ combined sales in 2015 are expected to be only about 1-2 percent greater than in 2014.

Figure 2 shows how the 1H15 top 20 ranking would have looked if the Avago/Broadcom and NXP/Freescale mergers were in place.  As shown, Avago/Broadcom would have been ranked 7th and NXP/Freescale would have moved into the 10th spot.  IC Insights believes that additional acquisitions and mergers over the next few years are likely to continue to shake up the future top 20 semiconductor company rankings.

semi sales 2q15 fig 2

Today, Intel Corporation announced it will invest $5 million over the next five years to deepen its engineering pipeline partnership with the Georgia Institute of Technology and deploy research-driven solutions to inspire and retain women and underrepresented minorities to start and complete computer science and engineering degrees.

The Intel and Georgia Tech program, announced in conjunction with the first-ever White House Demo Day, builds on Intel’s ongoing commitment to improve diversity in the technology industry. Earlier this year, Intel announced a new goal in diversity and inclusion: to achieve full representation of underrepresented minorities and women by the year 2020 in its U.S. workforce, along with a $300 million Diversity in Technology initiative to help build a pipeline of underrepresented engineers and computer scientists, to foster hiring and inclusion of women and underrepresented minorities at Intel, and to fund programs to support a more positive representation of women and underrepresented minorities in technology and gaming.

“Filling the tech industry pipeline with diverse students is critical to increasing the number of diverse engineers and computer scientists in the field,” said Rosalind Hudnell, vice president of Human Resources and Chief Diversity Officer at Intel. “The goal of this program is to inspire and support more women and underrepresented minorities to earn technical degrees so we can hire them down the road – we want to foster those future tech innovators.”

The program will support and expand several existing Georgia Tech initiatives, including:

  • Summer Engineering Institute: The three-week Summer Engineering Institute hosts rising 11th- and 12th-graders from around the country. Students learn basic engineering and computer science techniques and gain hands-on experience through working in teams to solve real-world engineering problems.
  • RISE: Retaining Inspirational Scholars in Technology and Engineering (RISE) provides financial support to talented underrepresented minority and non-traditional students. Intel’s existing Diversity Scholars program will provide scholarships with priority going to those whose majors align with Intel’s interests: electrical engineering, computer science and computer engineering.
  • Peer-2-Peer Mentoring: The mentoring program provides specialized guidance and support to undergraduate students majoring in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), while also helping them adjust to the climate and culture at Georgia Tech. Mentors and mentees develop leadership, communication and networking skills.
  • SURE: The Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering (SURE) is a 10-week research program to attract qualified minority students from across the country into graduate school in the fields of engineering and science. In addition to conducting research, participants receive mentoring from faculty and graduate students and participate in professional development and technical seminars.
  • Focus: The Focus program invites college juniors and seniors from around the country to attend a three-day event designed to raise awareness of graduate education among underrepresented students. Participants learn about financial resources, visit research laboratories, network with other scholars and receive help with the graduate school application process.

The Intel and Georgia Tech program is anticipated to result in retaining more than 1,000 underrepresented minority students and improve access to thousands more students.

“It is a national imperative that the U.S. continue to enhance the engagement of students of all backgrounds in STEM fields to create a more robust economy,” said Gary May, dean and Southern Company Chair in the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech. “The higher education and private sectors must combine forces to achieve the impact that is necessary. As a national leader in producing outstanding underrepresented engineering graduates, Georgia Tech is pleased to partner with Intel in this transformative initiative.”

The Intel and Georgia Tech program was announced in conjunction with the first-ever White House Demo Day, which celebrates the important role entrepreneurship plays in America’s economy. Unlike a private-sector demo day, where entrepreneurs and startups pitch their ideas to funders, this new event invites innovators from around the country to “demo” their individual stories in Washington, D.C.

Earlier this year, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced that Intel is entering into a memorandum of understanding with the Oakland Unified School District and will invest $5 million over the next five years to improve access to computer science and engineering careers as early as high school. As part of Intel’s new collaboration with Georgia Tech, many of the Oakland students will have the opportunity to participate in Georgia Tech’s Summer Engineering Institute.

MEMS Industry Group (MIG) will gather the world’s leading providers of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and sensors technology for its second annual MEMS Industry Group Conference Asia in Shanghai, China on September 8-11, 2015. Held in partnership with Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (SIMIT) and Shanghai Industrial Technology Research(SITRI), this four-day event blends a two-day conference focused on the challenges and opportunities for MEMS and sensors in the Internet of Things (IoT) with exclusive tours of top R&D labs and commercial companies.

“MEMS Industry Group Conference Asia merges real-world exploration with a conference and networking event to give attendees a rare inside view of MEMS/sensors innovation engines in China,” said Karen Lightman, executive director, MEMS Industry Group. “From our tours of Nanopolis and SITRI Innovation Centers to interactive salon sessions with commercial industry and R&D — as well as presentations from the world’s most successful global suppliers of MEMS/sensors — conference attendees will engage with startup companies, researchers and multinational companies to learn firsthand about MEMS/sensors in Asia. Attendees will also gain valuable insight into the skyrocketing importance of MEMS/sensors in the IoT.”

Pre-conference Tour of Nanopolis

MIG will host a pre-conference tour of Nanopolis, called “the world’s largest hub of nanotech innovation and commercialization,” on September 8, 2015. Pre-conference attendees will visit Nanopolis-based MEMS and sensors companies: China Wafer Level CSP Co., Ltd. (WLCSP), the MEMS fab at MEMSRIGHT and SINANO laboratory (Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics).

The conference agenda features:

o   Moderator: George Hsu, chairman of the board, PNI Sensor

o   Panelist: David Allan, president, Virtuix

o   Panelist: Xianfeng (Sean) Ding, director of sensing – chief scientist, Huawei

o   Panelist: Andrew Kung, general manager, Colt Advance International Limited

o   Panelist: Gary Yao, advanced technology manager, HTC America

o   Moderator: Doug Sparks, executive vice president, Hanking Electronics

o   Panelist: George Liu, director, TSMC

o   Panelist: Ian Wright, marketing director, SPTS

o   Panelist: Zheng Yuan, vice president and general manager of the 200mm Equipment Product Group, Applied Materials

MIG Conference Asia also features a Dinner Cruise on September 10 with MIG, SITRI and SIMIT aboard the yacht, The Happy Captain.

Chinese Innovation Experience

On September 11, conference attendees will take an “innovation tour” of the SITRI fab and Shangahi Simgui Technology Co., Ltd as well as other SITRI facilities, including the IoT Innovation Center, QST and SITRI labs. Attendees will visit the InnoSpring Innovation Center, where they will experience demos from SITRI IoT Systems Group and SITRI Executive Information System (EIS) R-CAD.

They will also participate in salon sessions with industry/academia to discuss trends in China spanning agriculture, environment, 3D printing, automotive electronics, monitoring cameras and electronic tags.

About MEMS Industry Group Conference Asia

MEMS Industry Group Conference Asia attracts product managers, business development professionals, and product/engineering managers from the MEMS and sensors supply chain including: integrators, device manufacturers, foundries, equipment and material suppliers, researchers, developers and end-users. The majority of the audience is from Asia, with additional attendees from Europe and North America representing multinational corporations.

ON Semiconductor has introduced an array of new AEC-Q100-compliant integrated circuits (ICs) optimized for implementation into next generation automobile designs.

The NBA3N200/1/6S multi-point low voltage differential signaling (M−LVDS) line driver/receiver family of devices operates off a 3.3 volt (V) power supply. The NBA3N200S and NBA3N201S both support signaling rates of up to 200 megabits per second (Mbps) and have a common-mode voltage range -1 V to 3.4 V. These devices have Type-1 receivers that detect the bus state with as little as 50 millivolt (mV) of differential input voltage over the common-mode voltage range. A differential input voltage hysteresis of 25mV on the receiver prevents oscillations at the output due to slow changing input signals or loss of input. The NBA3N206S also supports 200 Mbps signaling rates with a Type-2 receiver that has a 0.1 V threshold. The offset voltage threshold function of the Type-2 receiver can detect open-circuit, idle bus and various other fault conditions that could harm the system. These devices are targeted for use in automotive applications such as headlamp pixel lighting, specifically for data transmission between the LED front light control unit and the headlight.

The NCV8154 140 mV rated dual output linear voltage regulator has an input voltage range covering 1.9 V to 5.25 V and two independent input voltage pins. Highly optimized for powering the RF blocks within automotive infotainment systems, this device is capable of providing a very stable and highly accurate voltage, with ultra-low noise plus elevated power supply rejection ratio (PSRR). The NCV8170 low drop-out (LDO) regulator is designed specifically for portable battery-powered applications, such as vehicle keyless entry systems, with a typical current consumption of just 500 nanoamperes (nA). Furthermore, a dynamic transient boost feature augments this device’s transient response characteristics. The NCV8715 is a high stability 50 milliamp (mA) LDO with an input voltage range that reaches up to 24 V and a ground current consumption of 4.7 microamperes (µA) over the full output load range. This device is very well suited to use with automotive grade microcontroller units. The NCV8154 / NCV8715 / NCV8170 devices each feature thermal shutdown and current limit protection mechanisms that ensure reliable operation.

Also introduced are single N-channel MOSFET devices capable of delivering incredibly low on-state resistance RDS(on) figures, minimizing conduction losses and improving overall operational efficiency levels. The NVMFS5C404NL, NVMFS5C410NL, NVMFS5C423NL and NVMFS5C442NL 40 V rated MOSFETs have typical RDS(on) values at 10 V of 0.56 mΩ, 0.71 mΩ, 1.6 mΩ and 2.2 mΩ respectively. These are supplemented by the 60 V NVMFS5C604NL, NVMFS5C612NL, NVMFS5C646NL and NVMFS5C670NL devices, which have typical RDS(on) values at 10 V of 0.93 mΩ, 1.2 mΩ, 3.8mΩ and 5.1 mΩ respectively. These devices expand the extensive ON Semiconductor portfolio of MOSFETs for use in power switching, load switching, motor control, and other automotive applications.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $84.0 billion during the second quarter of 2015, an increase of 1.0 percent over the previous quarter and 2.0 percent compared to the second quarter of 2014. Global sales for the month of June 2015 reached $28.0 billion, an uptick of 2.0 percent over the June 2014 total of $27.4 billion and a decrease of 0.4 percent from last month’s total of $28.1 billion. Year-to-date sales during the first half of 2015 were 3.9 percent higher than they were at the same point in 2014. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“Macroeconomic headwinds and softening demand have slowed global semiconductor market growth somewhat, but the industry still posted its highest-ever second-quarter sales and remains ahead of the pace of sales set in 2014, which was a record year for semiconductor revenues,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “The Americas market continues to post solid year-to-year sales increases, and the global market has now grown on a year-to-year basis for 26 consecutive months.”

Regionally, sales increased compared to June 2014 in China (7.8 percent), the Americas (5.6 percent), and Asia Pacific/All Other (5.2 percent), but fell in Europe (-11.5 percent) and Japan (-13.6 percent). Sales were up slightly compared to last month in Japan (1.0 percent) and China (0.6 percent), but down somewhat in Asia Pacific/All Other (-0.6 percent), the Americas (-1.6 percent), and Europe (-1.7 percent). Sales figures in Europeand Japan have been impacted somewhat by currency devaluation.

“Global semiconductor sales are one indicator of the strength of the U.S. industry, which accounts for more than half of total global sales,” Neuffer said. “Policymakers in Washington should enact policies that do more to promote innovation and allow our industry to compete more effectively globally. We applaud the newly formed Congressional Semiconductor Caucus – led by Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho), Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) – for working to advance pro-growth policies that will strengthen the U.S. semiconductor industry and our economy.”

June 2015

Billions

Month-to-Month Sales                               

Market

Last Month

Current Month

% Change

Americas

5.62

5.53

-1.6%

Europe

2.87

2.83

-1.7%

Japan

2.54

2.57

1.0%

China

8.08

8.13

0.6%

Asia Pacific/All Other

9.00

8.94

-0.6%

Total

28.11

27.99

-0.4%

Year-to-Year Sales                          

Market

Last Year

Current Month

% Change

Americas

5.24

5.53

5.6%

Europe

3.19

2.83

-11.5%

Japan

2.97

2.57

-13.6%

China

7.54

8.13

7.8%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.50

8.94

5.2%

Total

27.44

27.99

2.0%

Three-Month-Moving Average Sales

Market

Jan/Feb/Mar

Apr/May/Jun

% Change

Americas

5.81

5.53

-4.7%

Europe

2.96

2.83

-4.4%

Japan

2.55

2.57

0.8%

China

7.83

8.13

3.8%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.57

8.94

4.4%

Total

27.70

27.99

1.0%

Pixelligent Technologies, a manufacturer of high index materials for demanding optoelectronics applications, announces the addition of four new OLED lighting products to its PixClear Zirconia nanocrystal family. These new products will deliver light extraction and efficiency for a wide variety of OLED lighting applications.

“Our new family of high index products for OLED lighting expands upon Pixelligent’s leadership position in the solid state lighting market, and we believe it will help accelerate the adoption of OLED lighting,” said Craig Bandes, President and CEO of Pixelligent.

The new PixClear for OLED products can be incorporated into OLED lighting panels as an internal light extraction and smoothing layer, delivering more than twice the amount of light currently extracted in OLED lighting devices. The product line includes two solvent-based and two formulated materials, available both as samples and at commercial scale.

“The OLED lighting market is ripe for accelerated growth and broad-user adoption and Pixelligent is delivering the functionality required to help OLED lighting manufacturers deliver substantially more lumens-per-watt,” added Bandes.

Sapphire is the key material for LED manufacturing. But in 2015, 20 percent of sapphire will be used in Apple’s iPhone, for the camera lens, fingerprint readers and heart rate monitors covers, and the Apple watch’s window. The new Yole Développement (Yole) report on Sapphire Applications & Market 2015: from LED to Consumer Electronic provides a complete update of all sapphire uses, from LED substrates to consumer applications.

Today, the sapphire industry looks very different, depending on your perspective. The market for sapphire wafers for LED manufacturing is depressed. Wafer prices often fall below manufacturing cost. There is excess capacity that will be able to supply the needs of the industry through to at least the end of the decade. Consequently, companies are shutting down one after the other.

By contrast, the use of sapphire is booming for non-LED applications, driven by Apple’s choice of this material to protect various sensors, and this may be just the beginning. The company decided not to use sapphire for the iPhone 6 family’s display covers, a decision that led to the bankruptcy of GTAT. But now there are signs in the industry that the mobile phone maker is again looking at sapphire as the solution for display covers. Multiple companies are apparently attempting to position themselves in the potential future supply chain. The moves include Lens Technology investing US$532 million investment in a new Chinese sapphire facility, a US$98 million injection in GTAT, the plans of Biel’s joint venture with Roshow for a huge expansion in Inner Mongolia, and several other initiatives.

sapphire companies

Click to view full size.

There were many reasons for Apple’s 2014 decision not to use sapphire in display covers, but they can be summarized as “too fast, too much, too soon.” The project was ambitious in its timeframe and targeted outputs, but many of the necessary processes and technologies in crystal growth and finishing were still at an early stage of development. Yet the venture still set the stage for the future. The partners have developed unrivalled expertise in working with sapphire in a high-volume, cost-controlled environment. A lot was also learned in manufacturing of the complex 3D-shaped Apple Watch cover. But the question remains: why use sapphire?

At more than five times the cost of glass, benefits in term of breakages are still far from obvious and its high reflectivity washes out displays. Sapphire won’t sell for a premium and increase Apple’s market share just on glamour and cachet. If the company eventually adopts sapphire, it means that it would have either demonstrated that it can improve breakage resistance compared to glass and/or developed entirely new functionalities enabled by some unique properties of sapphire.

To exist and thrive, the display cover market needs Apple to take the lead and to succeed. Otherwise, only Huawei seems in a position to propel this market, but not at the same level. And alternative technologies are emerging. Various phone manufacturers recently adopted alumina-coated glass display covers to provide superior scratch resistance. Sapphire Applications & Market 2015: from LED to Consumer Electronic report from Yole presents and analyzes the recent trends in this market, including cost structures, investments and alternative technologies.

In 2015, LEDs still consume 76 percent of the sapphire supply, but oversupply is affecting revenue and profitability. Capacity has increased non-stop since 2009, despite prices being at or below cost for most suppliers since late 2011. The market is oversupplied two or threefold, depending on product category. But the situation is complex. Tier one vendors often operate at high utilization rates and keep increasing capacity. Tier two companies operate at low utilization rates or not at all.

Companies such as BIEMT or Sumitomo Metal Mining recently disappeared or exited the business. The big winners in 2014 were Monocrystal, Aurora, Namiki, Rigidtech and Crystalwise, which all managed to increase volumes and revenue. Global revenue from sapphire cores, bricks and wafers reached US$1.1 billion. Adding finished components produced by Biel, Lens Technology, Crystal Optech and others, revenue reached US$1.8 billion, including the notable performance of Saifei, which supplied the Kyocera Brigadier’s sapphire display cover.

Under strong price pressure, the sapphire industry successfully reduced its costs – but prices are falling even faster. An 18 percent average selling price decrease in 2015 wiped out potential gains from a 16 percent volume increase in LED wafer shipments. “We expect prices to keep decreasing, resulting in an LED wafer market remaining essentially flat in revenue despite a 5.2 percent CAGR growth in volume expected through to 2020,” said Eric Virey, Senior, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole. Optical wafers may also struggle if Yole’s scenario of Apple phasing out its current sapphire fingerprint reader technology for an “In Display” fingerprint sensor materializes in 2018.

IC Insights’ new 185-page Mid-Year Update to The McClean Report, which will be released later this week, examines the recent surge of M&A activity, including China’s aggressive new programs aimed at bolstering its presence in the semiconductor industry.

It would be hard to characterize the huge wave of semiconductor mergers and acquisitions occurring in 2015 as anything but M&A mania, or even madness.  In just the first six months of 2015 alone, announced semiconductor acquisition agreements had a combined total value of $72.6 billion (Figure 1), which is nearly six times the annual average for M&A deals struck during the five previous years (2010-2014).

Figure 1

Figure 1

Three enormous acquisition agreements in 1H15 have already catapulted 2015 into the M&A record books.  First, NXP announced an agreement in March to buy Freescale for $11.8 billion in cash and stock.  In late May, Avago announced a deal to acquire Broadcom for about $37 billion in cash and stock, and then four days later (on June 1), Intel reported it had struck an agreement to buy Altera for $16.7 billion in cash.  Avago’s astonishing deal to buy Broadcom is by far the largest acquisition agreement ever reached in the IC industry.

In many ways, 2015 has become a perfect storm for acquisitions, mergers, and consolidation among major suppliers, which are seeing sales slow in their existing market segments and need to broaden their businesses to stay in favor with investors.  Rising costs of product development and advanced technologies are also driving the need to become bigger and grow sales at higher rates in the second half of this decade.  The emergence of the huge market potential for the Internet of Things (IoT) is causing major IC suppliers to reset their strategies and quickly fill in missing pieces in their product portfolios.  China’s ambitious goal to become self-sufficient in semiconductors and reduce imports of ICs from foreign suppliers has also launched a number of acquisitions by Chinese companies and investment groups.

IC Insights believes that the increasing number of mergers and acquisitions, leading to fewer major IC manufacturers and suppliers, is one of major changes in the supply base that illustrate the maturing of the industry.  In addition to the monstrous M&A wave currently taking place, trends such as the lack of any new entry points for startup IC manufacturers, the strong movement to the fab-lite business model, and the declining capex as a percent of sales ratio, all promise to dramatically reshape the semiconductor industry landscape over the next five years.

Within the photolithography equipment market reaching $150M in 2014, advanced packaging applications experienced the strongest growth. Yole Développement (Yole)estimates that more than 40 systems have been installed in 2014, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) representing 10 percent between 2014 and 2020. In the meanwhile, MEMS photolithography equipment looks set for 7 percent CAGR and LEDs 3 percent.

Yole released last month its technology & market analysis dedicated to the manufacturing process, photolithography. Under this analysis entitled “Photolithography Equipment & Materials for Advanced Packaging, MEMS and LED Applications”, the “More than Moore” market research and strategy consulting company proposes a comprehensive overview of the equipment and materials market dedicated to the photolithography step. Yole’s analysts performed a special focus on the advanced packaging area. They highlighted the following topics: current and emerging lithography technologies, technical specifications, challenges and technology trends, market forecast between 2014 and 2020, market shares and some case studies.

yole packaging july

“The advanced packaging market is very interesting and is growing dynamically as it includes many different players along the supply chain,” said Claire Troadec, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole. It encompasses outsourced assembly at test firms (OSATs), integrated manufacturers (IDMs), MEMS foundries and mid-stage foundries.
In comparison, even if the MEMS & Sensors industry is growing at a fast pace, components are also experiencing die size reduction due to strong cost pressure in the consumer market. Consequently wafer shipments are not following the same trend as unit shipments. Lastly, LED equipment growth is back to a normal rhythm, after big investments made in recent years.

Advanced packaging has very complex technical specifications. Warpage handling as well as heterogeneous materials represent big challenges to photolithography. Due to aggressive resolution targets in advanced packaging, performance must be improved. The current minimum resolution required is below 5µm for some advanced packaging platforms, like 3D integrated circuits, 2.5D interposers, and wafer level chip scale packaging (WLCSP). A lot of effort is being made to reduce overlay issues due to shifting dies and obtain vertical sidewalls for flip-chip and WLCSP. Although steppers are already well established in the packaging field, new disruptive lithography technologies are also emerging and could contribute to market growth from 2015-2016.

“Huge business opportunities in the advanced packaging market are therefore driving photolithography equipment demand,” highlighted Amandine Pizzagalli, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole. “Given the high growth rate of this market, there is no doubt that already established photolithography players and new entrants will be attracted,” she added.

yole packaging july fig 2